


A Peralta-Santiago Christmas

by b99xperaltiago



Series: Baby Nine-Nine [2]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, christmas day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 04:31:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17155349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/b99xperaltiago/pseuds/b99xperaltiago
Summary: Waking up at 4 am, a family trip away as a surprise, in-laws arriving after a father-daughter argument, a cooker not working right, a grounding threat and family movie night. Can Christmas get any better than this?





	A Peralta-Santiago Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I was going to do all of the families, but in the end, I only managed to write and edit the full of the Peralta family. 
> 
> Anyway, enjoy, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

_**Christmas Day, 2033** _

_(Marley: 00:00 - 04:48 am)_

I woke up early on Christmas morning. How could I tell it was early? Dad hadn't come into my room and woken me up, and it was still dark outside in the hall. I glance at my alarm clock I was given for my fifth birthday and see the time: _04:16 am_

I sigh as there's like three more hours until dad would usually get us up.

I fall back on to my side, my head going against my pillow again. I close my eyes and toss and turn for what feels like ages trying to get back to sleep. In reality, it's only about ten minutes, but in the end, I can't seem to get back to the dream I was having before.

I'm super, mega excited for today. We're going to see our uncles and cousins and grandparents and I'm so hyped for it, which I believe is the reason why I can't get back to sleep.

I decide to get out of bed and creep around the living room. Not to open any presents my dad has been laying under the tree since December 1st, but just to see if Santa did come last night. I excitedly tip toe down the stairs and into the living room to see the tree lighted up and the presents underneath. I check the stockings we've lied around the living room to see them the same shape and place as last night. Santa hasn't been yet.

I panic. If I don't go back to sleep now, he won't come. So I quickly, but quietly rush back upstairs and jump into my bed, pulling my duvet over my shoulders, closing my eyes as tightly as they can go at the same time.

I toss and turn again, and sleep doesn't want to happen apparently. I look back at my clock and see that only fifteen minutes has passed since I've woken up the first time.  
I'm just too excited.

I get back out of bed and slowly walk across the landing to my parents bedroom. I get a look in Cam's room, as she insists on her door being open every night. She's fast asleep. How is it possible my sister who is half my age can sleep better than me? I smile before going over a few steps and opening my parents bedroom door.

What I don't get is how Cam's not allowed to sleep in my bed, or Charlie's, or Finn's, but mom and dad always sleep in the same bed. It's also how Cam once slept in Leah's bed when she was younger, but I wasn't allowed to, and how I slept in Charlie's bed once and Leah's not allowed to.

I go over to my dad's side of the bed and shake his shoulder a little. "Dad, Dad..." I whisper his name over and over again for a while until he eventually begins to wake up.

He blinks a few times and slowly lifts himself up. "Marley, what are you doing up?" He asks with a kind whisper.

"I can't sleep, I'm too excited, and Santa hasn't been so if I don't sleep he won't come before the morning, but I can't sleep because I'm too excited-"

He stops me before I can keep going. "Yeah, buddy, you already said you were too excited to sleep," he sighs a little, yawning a little too. "Why don't you try counting sheep?"  
That's a tactic dad always insists works. Counting sheep jumping over a fence.

I shake my head. "That doesn't work." I sigh.

"Do you want some warm milk or something?" He asks.

I shake again. "That makes me feel poorly, and I don't want Leah to get scared."

Dad smiles weakly. "That's very considerate, buddy," he says which makes me smile with pride. "Do you want me to read to you for a little bit."

I stand there considering for a moment. I quickly nod my head. "Yes, please."

Dad grunts like Leah does when I make her get out of bed too early. He follows me back down the landing and into my room. He switches on my bedroom light, which adds to the light in the hall. He grabs the _Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban_ book from my shelf and lays down on my bed next to me as I tuck myself in.

He continues from where we left off last night and I feel myself get relaxed as soon as he starts. He reads for a while before I begin to drift off. He puts the book back down, this time on my bedside table and leans down, kissing my hair lightly.

"See you in the morning, buddy." He carefully gets off my bed and goes over to my door.

Before he switches off my light, I stop him as his hand reaches the switch.

"Dad," I turn to face him even with my eyes half closed.

"Yeah," he responds to his name.

"Is it true that you went to prison?" I ask.

Even though my eyes were almost closed, I can see a scared look on dad's face.

He pauses for a minute before slowly nodding. "Yeah... how did you know that?"

"Leah told me." I stop for a moment before continuing. "Why did you go?"

"A naughty lady tried to get me in trouble, but your mommy and my friends got me out," he moves slightly closer to my bed. "And the worst bit was if they hadn't gotten me or Rosa out when they did, I might not have married your mom, so you and Leah and the twins and Cam, you wouldn't have been born."

"That was the worst part? Not going to prison?"

Dad shakes his head with a small smile. "No, if you guys weren't born, and I didn't have your mom, I don't know what I would do."

I smile a little and my eyes close a couple times as I try to keep them open. I see dad shake his head and reach for the light again.

"Goodnight, Marley, see you in the morning." He switches off the light and shuts my door as he leaves.

I turn to my side and see my alarm clock again as my eyes shut for the final time. It reads: _04:48 am, 12/25._

* * *

_Camila: 04:48 - 09:36 am_

I wake up and see the light coming in from behind the sheet covering the glass thing that lets me see out to the outside. I get out of bed and run out of my door. I run to mommy and daddy's bedroom, yelling out with happiness. I jump on their bed, shaking them to get them to wake up too.

"Wake up, it's Christmas!" Is what I shout as I jump up and down on their bed.

Mommy sits up and tells me to stop but I don't listen and I still keep jumping up and down. Soon after that Daddy sits up and grabs me taking me down with tickles. I start to laugh while telling him to stop.

"Mornin', Cam." Daddy says.

"Mornin'."

He puts a kiss on my forehead like he does before I go to bed every night.

"Go and wake up your siblings." He says as he gets out of bed.

I nod and run out of their room and down the hallway to the other rooms. I run in Leah's and shout and it wakes her up straight away. I run out and into Charlie and Finn's room and shout to them for ages before they get up. I run out and into Marley's room and like Leah, he wakes up straight away.

After a very long time they are all out of their rooms and waiting for mommy and daddy. Leah's got my hand as we walk down the stairs, even though I don't need to hold her hand because I'm a big girl now. I'm four so that makes me a big girl. But she keeps my hand anyway.

When we get to the bottom I let go of Leah's hand and run into the living room. I see the socks filled and I run out.

"Santa's been!" I shout and run back in.

"I knew it!" Marley shouts behind me and is in the room after me.

Daddy makes us all sit on one couch with our socks in front of us and he takes a picture.

"Keeper." He says with a smile and sits back with mommy.

We sit on our own again and go through the socks. You can't put the socks on because they are too big which made me sad when I found that out.  
It takes a very long time to go through the socks, even though they aren't very big. They would make you think they can fit on your feet but they don't. And all I want to do is play with the toys I got. Before I can Daddy hands out the five small presents from under the tree to one of us each.

"I'm sorry these are really small, but remember, you might get some more later from family."

I rip it open and shout with happiness. It's an awesome stack of paper that has a picture of Mickey Mouse on. I run over and hug Mommy and Daddy and I say thank you.

"Do you know what it is, Cam?" Mommy asks.

I shake my head and go and get the paper again and point to Mickey on the front. "What?"

Mommy laughs and Daddy does too.

"We're going to go on a plane next week before you all go back to school and we're going to Florida to see the real Mickey Mouse!" Daddy says.

I open my mouth in shock and everyone else does too.

"We're what?" I hear Leah ask from behind me.

"Surprise!" Mommy says.

It takes us all a short time before someone says something. "We're going to Florida?" Charlie asks.

Mommy and Daddy nod. "Yeah."

"I thought said you'd never step foot in _'America's stinky butt'_ again." Leah says.

Daddy looks at her with eyes wide. "How do you keep learning about things like that?" He asks.

"I learned the prison thing from Gina and the Florida thing from mom. Oh, and the undercover thing from... someone I've already mentioned." Leah says.

Daddy looks at Mommy and she smiles and him. He tries to look angry at her but he smiles too.

"And yes, I did say I'd never go back down there, but I guess I can make an exception for one time only." Daddy says.

* * *

_Charlie: 09:36 am - 14:24 pm_

Wrapping paper cleared, table laid, placements set, and dressed for the day, me and Marley were playing his new game he was given from Santa in his stocking, the one he had been raving about for months now. We were absorbed in it until dad comes through from the kitchen.

He's wearing his white jumper he claims is from the second Die Hard movie, something of which he is dying to show us, and to be truthful, I was actually looking forward to watching it.

I lift my head up, my eyes glued to the screen at the same time. "Hey dad when can we watch Die Hard?" I ask, breaking the silence of the room.

Finn is watching us contently, obviously me and Marley are playing, Cam is making a mess on the floor that mom insisted on being clean, and Leah was on her phone.

"Hm?" Dad asks, sitting down on the couch next to Marley.

"When can we watch Die Hard?" I ask again.

"I'm asking your mom everyday, buddy."

Finn changes the subject. "Why aren't you cooking?" He wonders.

"Your mom's cooking." He answers.

Almost immediately, the game is paused and four of us in the room are groaning and complaining loudly in protest, Cam not really paying any attention to the room around her, and I'm pretty sure she thinks she's alone right now.

"Hey, before you get too harsh, I know your mom's not the best with cooking -"

Finn interrupts loudly. "She's awful at cooking!" He corrects with over exaggeration in his voice.

He has a point, mom really can't cook, but he had so much, maybe too much, exaggeration in his voice to go along with it.

"Anyway, I've written out a full set of instructions and have made sure she won't do a switch like she did with salt and baking soda one thanksgiving." Dad adds.

Leah pulls a disgusted face from behind her phone and Marley groans a little at the sound of it.

"How did she do that?" Finn wonders.

Dad only shrugs. "I'll be helping her out though, I'm just making sure Cam's not doing anything too stupid and that you guys are getting along - which is a check and check." He scans his eyes around the room.

I noticed that at the very mention of Cam's name, Leah was rolling her eyes. I thought it would be dropped, as I know why, but clearly dad saw it too.

He looks across to her, a small smile appearing on his face, although it was clear he was trying to swipe it off. "Why did you roll your eyes?" He asks gently, in more of a interested manner.

Leah shrugs, refusing to give up any info. I don't blame her.

"Why did you?" Dad repeats.

Leah, again, doesn't verbally reply, and instead shrugs her shoulders again.

The smile is off his face as dad shifts in his seat to face her entirely. "Leah, why did you roll your eyes?"

She ignores him and continues to play on her phone.

It is clear that dad is starting to get agitated as he shifts a second time. He places his hands in his lap and begins to uncreepily stare at her. He clears his throat and moves his gaze to the side before back on Leah. "Leah Grace Peralta, answer me. Why did you roll you eyes?" His voice raises a number.

"Oh, so your actually giving me attention now?" She finally asks, putting her phone down.

"Excuse me?" Dad asks, his voice back down to normal.

"Are you giving me attention now?" She repeats.

Dad raises his eyebrows and turns to us and then back at her quickly. "Where is this going?"

"All morning I've tried to talk to you and you've ignored me every single time." She replied.

Dad sighs. "What are you on about? I haven't ignored you."

Leah goes slightly quiet for a moment before picking it back up. "Yeah, sure, it doesn't matter anyway, I'm used to it by now, so whatever."

"You're used to it? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, just that over the past four years, you have spent a considerably large amount of time worrying over Cam and work."

"I have spent an equal amount of time with all of you," dad tries to keep his voice down, but it is clear to all of us how the rage was slowly building up inside of him. It was like this the last time we had Grandpa Roger over. "Don't accuse me of spending more time with Cam."

"But you can't deny it, can you?" She raises her eyebrows. "You can't say you spend more time with Cam."

"It's because she's a toddler, Leah, you need to keep an eye out for them more than kids."

"Right, so that's why you spend more time with the twins rather than Marley?"

Dad only raises his eyebrows in confusion, sitting forward slightly in his seat.

"Well by what you were saying is that the older you are, the less attention you need, right?" A beat passes of silence before she continues. "So why is it that you spend more time worrying about the twins than you do with Marley?"

"Because the twins are the twins, they need that observation otherwise they'll do something dumb," he sighs. "Are you trying to say I don't give you attention?"

"Pretty much so," she sighs. "Over the past four years to today, you spend most of your time with Cam, the twins, Marley or work. Cam gets most of that because she's the youngest, the twins because you're saying they'll do something dumb, work is because you can't stop it, no matter what, and Marley is because of his whole messed up thing with Ezra."

Dad sits back against the back of the couch and sighs, looking around the living room. "This is unbelievable, Leah. Why are we having this conversation today? Why are we having this conversation at all?"

"Because sometimes I feel like your treating me as if I was invisible," Leah sighs it out finally. "I ask you to help me with homework, you never do and I'm stuck doing it on my own. I ask you over and over again to book an appointment with the doctor about my anxiety and you've ignored me every time. You treat me like a child, dad, all the time. Sometimes I feel like you don't want me around, like you make it seem as if you don't think I exist."

"Why in the world would you think that?" Dad almost shouts.

"Because I do! Because you make it seem like it's true! You seat me at the kids table with every single event."

"That's because you are a kid!"

"So why isn't Rocco sitting at the kids table today, then? He's only a year older than me, so what's the difference?"

"He's older, Leah, he doesn't fit there."

"So admit it, you don't want me on the adult table because you don't think I'm mature enough, or old enough."

Dad goes quiet as Marley finally falls off the couch and sits next to me on the floor.

Leah stands from the couch and looks down at dad with a glare. "That's what I thought." Is the last thing she says before rushing upstairs.

The room falls to a silence and Finn has to be the one to break it after a minute or so.

"Wow, Christmas falls with drama, am I right?"

Marley hits his leg and I shout up for him to be quiet as Dad remains still, utterly stunned, in his place.

* * *

The door goes and I rush out, beating both Marley and Cam to open it. On the other side is Gramma and Granpa (dad's parents). They smile and hug us all tightly before walking through to the living room., Marley and Cam following directly at the feet. Before I can too, dad slumps back downstairs, looking unhappy for the third time in half an hour.

"She still not happy?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

Dad sulks and nods, walking back into the kitchen to help out with the dinner.

I go back into the living room and Gramma is looking around the room. "Where's Leah?" She asks.

Finn answers. "She and dad got into an argument and she's been hiding out in her room since."

"Argument over what?"

Marley and Finn shrug, not having really listened. I looked up at my grandparents, who seemed somewhat worried.

"Leah was complaining about not being treated the same as all of us."

Granpa and Gramma share a look before Gramma lifts the small bag she had brought in with her. They aren't the biggest people on Christmas, but dad has told them to at least celebrate it with us from time to time. She hands out a small present to each of us leaving Leah's in the bag. Cam opens it faster than light, and Marley pauses the game to open his, making Finn moan having not noticed why he had stopped the match halfway through.

Cam shrieks out with happiness upon seeing the pack of Peppa Pig and Mickey Mouse clothing she had gotten, pajarmers and day-clothes. Marley smiles a toothy grin with his soccer shirt with his favorite number on the back along with his name against his chest. Finn gives a small smile holding the new game he had been raving about for our xbox, and then glares at me saying it was his game and his game only. I roll my eyes before opening mine, which was a robot building set. I smile and thank them, causing a wave of thank you's from every one else.

"What did Leah get?" I ask, already eager to open the box in my hands.

"Oh, just some artsy stuff." Granpa answers.

I nod. "She'll love that." I reply, knowing how much Leah enjoys to draw in her spare time. She's also really good at it.

Dad comes out from the kitchen and greets his parents, apologizing for not seeing them sooner. He then disappears again back into the kitchen when Mom calls his name, asking him for help.

* * *

And another half an hour later, there was a second knock at the door, and Marley beat me and Cam to it this time. On the other side is Abuela and Abuelo (mom's parents) along with four of mom's brothers with their wives and kids. Mom said it would be crazy this year, so I guess she meant it literally.  
Once everyone is inside, Leah finally comes down the stairs.

I run over to her. "Hey, your back down." I point out the very clear obvious as she is standing right in front of me.

She rolls her eyes but still responds. "Well, yeah, but only to see the family. I'm not speaking to dad."

"He's moved you to the adult table, it did cause a little heat between mom and dad, but they're fine now."

"And that's going to fix it?" She asks.

I go quiet.

"I'm only down to spend Christmas with my family and not hiding out in my room," she continues, moving me out of the way slightly. "And also when I stormed upstairs I left my phone down here, so I got pretty bored." She adds before walking into the living room.

There is a cheer from Cam as she walks in and everyone else greets her loudly. I follow her through and continue back on the game that was on and had been for like two hours now. Mom rushes out of the kitchen wearing an apron and hugs everyone, finally greeting them properly.

Cam notices the big bag of presents and looks up at Abuela with a cheeky grin. "Are those for us?" She asks.

Abuela smiles slightly. "Of course they are sweetheart."  
Cam's grin grows wider. "Can we open them?"

"After dinner, little Cam, okay?" Abuelo answers instead.

Cam, surprisingly doesn't complain and goes to show off the tickets for Disney next week to everyone again, not like it was the seventh time she had done that.  
I get up and go to the kitchen. As I open the door, Mom and Dad's conversation grounds to a halt and they stay silent. I make myself a drink quickly before leaving and as soon as the door was shut again, Dad begins to pick back up the conversation they were having before. It sounded like he was angry, but with all the noise from the living room, I could hardly tell.

I turn back to the large group of people in the living room, all of them somehow cooing over Cam as she sang a song shyly, but they all seem pretty invested in it either way. I sigh and join Marley, taking over from Finn on the game, seen as it had been my turn for like fifteen minutes, but he refused to hand off the controller.

* * *

_Leah: 14:24 - 19:12 pm_

It reached 3:00, and it surprised me when dinner wasn't put on the table immediately as the clock struck that time.  
Mom was in charge, with dad helping (thankfully), and the thing with Santiago's is that they have some weird need to be on time for almost everything. - No, wait, scratch that, they feel the need to be on time for everything!

So, with slight worry and hesitation, I walked through the kitchen the second it turned 3:01 to see what was causing my mom, the most meticulous Santiago of them all, to be late. I hoped it was not because she was attempting to be cool again, which apparently ended in a very drunken night. (I love having ties to my parent's previous lives, it's fun to know what they were like before they had kids!)

When I walked through, I saw my dad attempting to calm my mom down as she was banging on the oven door.

"Ames, it won't cook any faster if you hit it!" Dad grabbed her arms and pulled her away gently.

"Jake it's not cooking, why won't it cook?" She whines, looking up at him sadly.

I chime in instead. "That thing takes forever, mom, it's had it."

Dad gives mom a look of 'I told you so' so she sticks her tongue out at him, making me laugh a little.

"Ames, you have no reason to freak out! Everything else is done-"

"And it smells actually quite good." I add on, cutting my dad short.

I did though, I wasn't lying. Sometimes when my mom cooks, we can't even walk into the kitchen it smells so bad. (That is on the very rare occasion she does cook, though).

"But that doesn't matter, I said it would be at a certain time, and I haven't lived up to that promise." Mom continues to whine, all the while rushing around the kitchen in a freak-out.

"Mom!" I call out, making her stop in her tracks and face me. She's got small beads of sweat forming on her forehead, which was understandable because the room must have been like one-hundred degrees minimum. There was also a panicked look filled in her eyes. "Calm down, nobody's noticed the time, the last time they checked was like an hour ago, and Cam's now showing off her dance moves to the music Tony's put on, everything's fine!"

"But I know it's late-"

I shush her quiet and it works, which surprises me because not even that works on Cam. "Don't worry about it!" I instruct her.

She goes quiet and somehow reminds me of a puppy when it's been scowled. I push away a slightly scary mental image and put my hand on the counter.

"Tell me how I can help."

Mom stumbles at first before looking at me with a confident-like smirk on her face. "Go around the house and change all the clocks back an hour and make sure-"

"No! No, no, no!" Dad cuts her off. He turns to me and looks at me with a slightly hesitant face, whilst also being fairly certain of what he was about to say. "The beef needs about another half-hour, so we need to keep the remainder of the food warm until then. Can you help us with that?"

I nod. "Yeah, sure."

Dad goes to say something but is cut off with mom banging on the cooker door again. "Ames, stop it!" He angrily tells her, and she returns to overmashing the potatoes with a hard force.

Dad rolls his eyes in my direction and I look down to hide my smile, having to mentally remind myself that I am mad at him still.

* * *

An hour later, the twenty-five of us were seated across the three-table-long spread Mom had somehow conjured up last night after we all went to bed. It was a tight fit, but it couldn't have been better. I was sat awkwardly between Granpa Roger and Caspian, which was apparently the border from dad's parents and my mom's family.

The sauce is being handed from person to person and I decline it, passing it along to Caspian on my left. Dad smiles at me from the head of the table and in the moment, I don't realize that I smile back.

Once everything is handed out, the table goes quiet, with everyone eating.  
After a single beat of silence, uncle Leonardo speaks up, mouth half full of food. "Wow, Jake, this is brilliant." He grins. The smile disappears when Abuela glares at him from across the table.

"Ur... actually, Ames did it today." Dad simply answers as if it wasn't a huge deal.

The table goes dead silent, with the exception of the sound of a fork being dropped on the china plate in what I can guess is shock.

Mom looks up at the table in disbelief. "Why do you all look surprised? I can cook."

A scoff is heard from the other end of the table, with the immediate response of twenty-four heads turning to face uncle Lukas. He looks around as if he hadn't done anything, although there was a small guilty-like smirk creeping on his face.

The table stays silent before mom breaks it. "Why is everyone staring at me? You all look so concerned, it's not poisoned!" She insists.

"How can we be sure? You gave me and Danny food poisoning once." Tony hides away a giggle from a few seats away from mom.

"I was like nine." Mom defends herself.

"Babe, they have every reason to be concerned," dad rubs her arm gently as he can obviously tell she's getting rilled up. "You are the same woman who switched salt for baking soda."

"Is there a difference between the two of them?" Mom wonders.

"Yes!" The entire table, exceptions of Cam and Zoha, yells.

Mom looks around in disbelief as everyone stares at her. She then turns to dad again. "Wait, how'd you know that? You weren't there, you left with Holt."

"Ah, but you see, everyone told me when you left the precinct that night. I won't lie, Charles had to keep me up straight I was laughing so much."

Mom looks to the side. "I'm gonna kill them," She mumbles, but it's loud enough for me to hear. "and I'd kill you for laughing if I didn't love you."

"Aww, love you too," dad then quickly raises his glass and lets a huge smile appear on his face. "Okay, happy Christmas everyone!"

Everyone loudly returns what he has said, including Cam on the other side of the table, with the help of Marley to make sure she didn't spill it all over herself. Mom quietly returns it, leaning into dad's shoulder slightly.

* * *

 

* * *

By seven, Cam was almost falling asleep on dad's side, and he was drifting off too. Gramma and Granpa had taken off an hour or so ago, seen as they had a longer drive back to theirs, and Abuela and Abuelo (along with mom's brothers) had taken off less than ten minutes ago.  
Mom finally came in from the kitchen after finishing the dishes I had partially helped with before giving up because the stuff was way too hard to remove. She immediately crashed down on the couch.

"I don't think I've ever eaten that much in my entire life." Dad groans quietly as not to wake up Cam.

"You've still got your portion of the Chinese food in the fridge. Your parents took theirs with them." Mom tells him.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna be able to eat that now." Dad lets out a small chuckle.

Marley laughs slightly next to me, his eyes still glued on the game he was still playing. The only real difference was that he had swapped into his soccer jersey he was given from Gramma and Granpa earlier today. What surprised me most was that Charlie and Finn were sitting next to each other and were not fighting, which was nice because they were half asleep.

Mom sees Cam as her head falls on to the couch and she sighs. "Alright I'm taking her up. Marley, you coming?" She asks, knowing how common it was for Marley to go to bed at the same time as Cam.

He nods and yawns, as if that was on cue. I think the on;y reason he does is so Mom can kiss him goodnight. He saves his games and switches the system off, following mom up the stairs as she carefully carries Cam up.

Charlie turns to dad. "Are we watching a movie tonight."

"I don't know, we're all exhausted. And it's up to Leah, seen as she's picking."

"What?" I ask, surprised I heard my name.

"Do you want to watch a movie?"

I take a moment before nodding. "Yeah."

"Okay, what do you want to watch?" Dad asks.

I stumble, not sure on what were movies and what weren't. It was just like they all disappeared from my head all of a sudden. Then my mind wanders to a conversation earlier this morning. I decide that one. "Die Hard."

Dad sits up in surprise, blinking several times. "What?"

"Die Hard. Let's watch Die Hard."

Dad shakes his head. "Be serious, Lee-bear."

I return with a slightly dirty glance. "I am being serious, I kinda wanna watch it, the twins are desperate. Why not?"

Dad stumbles. "Right... okay then... You have a little bit of a point, the movie's great. Okay, let's watch Die Hard then." He smiles with a huge grin on his face.

* * *

_Finn: 19:12 pm - 00:00 am_

We sat on the two different couches, Leah and dad on one, me and Charlie on the other, as dad played around with the DVD player, setting up the like, fifty-year-old movie.  
It was bold to me that Leah wanted to sit next to dad after their little argument earlier, but it also wasn't like Leah to hold a grudge too long, and she is way too much of a daddy's girl to dislike dad for an hour or two. So even though it surprised me, it also didn't at the same time.

After a minute, mom came back downstairs and as soon as she walked through the door to the living room, she slouched, groaning under her breath.

Dad smiled, pressing play with the remote. "You don't have to watch it." He grinned, laughing slightly.

"You had better not have blackmailed or promised them something to make them watch this, Jake."

"Actually, before you put the blame on me, it was Leah who chose to watch this," he hit pause with the thought of this conversation going on for a while, "but I understand why you would think I would make them watch this." He laughed.

Mom sat between me and Finn, which was a clever idea. There was a high (a very high) chance that halfway through I would start to annoy him. There was a rule that if Leah and dad sat next to each other, don't sit in the middle of them. There's this whole thing that always happens that would probably start soon too.

"I'll watch it, but after this one, I'm going to bed, and so are the kids." Mom says.

Charlie and Leah groan in response, and I couldn't really care.

"And if I find out any of the cursing from the film is used anywhere else, you are grounded."

"What?" Me and Charlie moaned. "Are you kidding me?" Leah complained, us all shouting quietly as not to be told off mom or dad if we were to wake up Cam or Marley (although he was probably still awake anyway).

"Not you guys," Mom smiles, looking over at Dad, "although you will get into trouble, your dad would get grounded."

Dad looks over at her, eyebrows raised. "From what?"

I then couldn't see the way Mom looks at Dad, but his response is an immediate turn to look at us.

"Don't say any of the words, kids." He says before turning back to the TV and hitting play.

Leah looked at him with eyebrows raised. "That's gross." She mumbles, her attention on the TV

Mom and Dad stare at each other blankly and then both at Leah. Her attention is put on them as she shrugs her shoulders. "What?" She asks.

"What's gross?" Charlie wonders.

"Nothing!" Mom answers very quickly as Dad shakes his head.

Me and Charlie exchange looks from behind Mom's back before she tells us to watch the movie as it begins properly. We fall into a silence as we all watched the movie, although in the corner of my eyes I could see dad mouthing the words to himself and occasionally off to Leah's direction. 

With the first "Yippee Ki-Yay", Mom purposely coughed over it, and Dad angrily glared at her, a small smile on his face he was trying hard to cover up. She repeated it for the next couple before standing up and leaving into the kitchen just before the next one.

Dad says it out loud, the volume loud enough to be heard from the other room, so it sends her in the room complaining, as we all laugh slightly up at her.

She gives up after that and we watch the remainder of the movie.

After about an hour or so, I catch Dad lean over to Leah's side and poke her arm. Now it was starting.

She lifts her head from the arm and glares at dad with a disapproving look. "How long have you been waiting to do that?" She asks quietly.

"About an hour." He answers, a smile wide on his face.

She pokes him back before laying down again, her head rested on the arm.

Dad looks slightly insulted and pokes her again. This goes on for a few minutes before Leah ends up rested against Dad instead. He continues to poke her, but she ignores it for the rest of the movie.

That's the game they play. A game they've played as long as I can actually remember, and is one of the reasons why having Dad and Leah on the same couch is never really a good thing.

At the end of the movie, Mom stands up, saying she was going to start reading the new book Dad had given her for Christmas. She kissed us all goodnight, including Dad, which was one I had to turn away from. It wasn't too gross, but I still had to look away (it's weird, okay!)

Once she was gone and upstairs, Dad looked at us with a huge grin as we all stood up.

"Who liked it?" He asked.

We all raised our hands.

"Same time next week?" Leah asked, smiling happily.

"Next week's New Year's, Leah. Abuela and Abuelo are coming to stay and if they find out we've watched this movie they won't be happy." Charlie responded.

"He has a good point." I side with him (surprisingly).

"Why don't we watch the second one now?"

Dad's face lights up, but he says no lightly. "You won't get to bed until like eleven, and your mom will..."

"Ground you?" I ask, filling in the gap.

Dad nods. "Yeah, she'll ground me alright."

Leah rolls her eyes and Charlie's eyebrows raise.

A moment passes before Leah speaks up again. "What if mom never knew?"

We ran through the rules and guidelines before Dad finally gives in and we all sit down to watch the second movie in the series.

(And after all of that, we were all asleep by minute fifteen.)

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are greatly appreciated, I love reading your opinions!


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